6.10.09

To Print

November 10th will mark the four year anniversary of this blog and over 400 posts in the last four years. So I have decided to do something that I have been thinking about for awhile. I want to make a hard copy of this blog for myself. A limited edition (1 copy only) Jeweled Concrete 2005-2009 book.

From the first post The Leap until present day, my life has changed in ways I could never have foreseen and no matter what happens next I am glad I have this little journal of these years of my life.

While I can always access the full history on line there are two reasons I want to make my own hardcopy. One is that technology changes and is imperfect and in the long run I don't want to risk losing all these posts even though the world would probably still go on. Yes I joke. The other is that I like how paper smells. It's just not the same clicking through internet as it is flipping through a book and seeing and smelling the pages.

I plan to try this software and publishing site called blurb. Before I do though, I wanted to see if anyone has tried it or any other sites for making their own books? Any recommendations welcome!

8 comments:

I am new to your blog, having only lived in Munich six months, but I think your idea to publish your blog (for yourself) is a great idea. I can't help you with publishing sites, but I do have a question for you. Did you write with the purpose of using your entries as a journal over the last four years, or did you blog and just recently decide to keep them as a journal? Just curious--you know, the chicken or the egg thing.I've been pretty good about blogging for the last 6 mos. mainly because I didn't during our last expat experience in China and in hindsight, I wished I did. But I've never stayed with anything for four years like you have. That is wonderful in itself! Good luck with your publishing--I will keep reading to see how it goes.

Hi Expats Again, I didn't originally make any plan. Mostly I just wanted a way for my family to follow me as they were upset that I was moving to Germany. Then I found that I really liked to write even just for myself. A couple of years ago I nearly lost all my photos and was really upset. Made me think twice about losing all these posts so thought I should find a way to save them and liked the idea of having a book format but still haven't done anything about it. Keep up the blogging - its fun to back from time to time and see what you were thinking and doing!

its fun to back from time to time and see what you were thinking and doing!

I agree! I also like this nifty service at photojojo.com where they send you a photo from your flickr photostream uploaded from the same week(-ish) the previous year. If you are a flickr user, it's nice to get a graphic reminder about where you where, etc.